JOB: Library technical assistant at the UI’s newspaper library. Has worked there full time since 1991. He discovered the newspaper library as an undergraduate in the 1980s and first worked in it while a student.
WHERE? The library’s reading room and stacks are tucked away in the basement of the main library, at the top of the stairs leading to the undergraduate library tunnel.
HOBBIES: He’s a dedicated traveler and he has a cork map of the United States covered with colored pins signifying baseball parks and other places he has visited.
Tell me about the library.
We are the largest university newspaper library in the nation. We have about 104,000 reels of microfilms and about 15,000 volumes in newspaper format. We have all the Times of London since 1785 on microfilm and all the Times indexes. We’ve got a long tradition of public service. We serve not only students, but the community and researchers nationwide.
Do people on campus know about this library and where you are?
A lot of people don’t realize what a fabulous resource we have. But once they find it, they come back. People have referred to this room as a submarine, a tunnel or a dungeon. Within the next couple of years we are going to be relocating to the second floor of the main library, where we’ll be in the main flow of traffic for our patrons.
What do you do?
I’m responsible for operations — orders, spreadsheets, statistics, preservation. I also deal with the vendors who provide our subscriptions. We all help patrons and researchers find what they’re looking for. Reference work in the newspaper library takes a lot of hands-on work and one-to-one communication with patrons. In general, most newspapers are not indexed. That comes as a shock to some patrons. Every week people come in asking for the Sun-Times Index. Except for a few years in its history, the Sun-Times has not been indexed.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Travel is what I really enjoy. I’ve been in Champaign-Urbana 19 years and I’ve made a lot of friends here. Many of them have moved away. Now I can visit friends all over the country.
What kind of places do you especially enjoy?
I’m a big baseball fan, so I’ve been to most of the big league ballparks in the country. Wrigley Field is the best, but I really like Oriole Park at Camden Yards. I loved the layout of it, the fact it’s downtown and the railroad warehouse is integrated into the park. Lately I’ve also become a nature freak. I like to see mountains, rivers and waterfalls.
Do you ever attend library conferences?
I went to the American Library Association annual conference in Washington last year. I spent one entire day working in the Library of Congress newspaper room. What I really liked the best is their climate-controlled room. They have Civil War newspapers from the South that were printed on the back of wallpaper. What impressed me is the scope of their commitment to preservation. I wish it were possible for the UI to have that kind of commitment. Unfortunately, here some of the most rare pieces can disintegrate over time and be lost.
